Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture by Christina Riggs

Author:Christina Riggs
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780199682782
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

The mighty Horus

Egyptologists are fond of old-fashioned words, thanks in part to the 19th century roots of the organized study of ancient Egypt. To smite—that is, to strike someone down, especially with a hand-held weapon in battle—is one example of a word that was more common a century ago (especially to English speakers steeped in Biblical language), but is rarely used today. However, specialists in Egyptian art speak about the ‘smiting scene’ as a shorthand way to identify images of the king raising a weapon against a cowering captive (Figure 12). This stock composition appears from the beginning of the so-called Dynastic period—when a single ruler seems to have gained control of the Nile delta and river valley—to the era of Cleopatra’s dynasty almost three thousand years later. Any image in use for such a long time, and in so many contexts, must have done a good job of conveying valued ideas, and ideals, in an adaptable way.

The ‘smiting scene’ in Figure 12 has been incised with a fine tool on a thin square of hippopotamus ivory, just over 5 cm wide. The two bottom corners were cut off at neat angles, and a hole pierced in the top right allowed this label to be tied to something—probably a pair of sandals, because that is what the artist also carved on the reverse. Labels like this one have been found by the dozen at Abydos, a site in southern Egypt (around 500 km south of Cairo) where splendidly supplied tomb complexes housed the burials of the first Egyptian kings to rule a unified, territory-based state. Abydos lay on the west bank of the Nile, at an intersection with travel routes west to the desert oases and east to the Red Sea. Between the agricultural fields along the river and the mountains of the high desert, these early rulers built mud-brick tombs filled with the riches of the day: weapons, jewellery, linen, furniture with ivory fittings, and stone vases and clay pots containing resin, oil, and food. Seal impressions mark some of these products as state-produced commodities, and the ivory labels may serve a similar function, both bureaucratic—to identify and tally goods—and symbolic.

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